Prosecutor requests seven-year suspended sentence for Jehovah's Witness from Shadrinsk

The court hearing of Alexander Lubin's case is coming to an end.

On May 28, 2024, the Shadrinsk City Court of the Kurgan Region began the debate of the parties in the case of Jehovah's Witness Alexander Lubin. The state prosecutor asked the court to sentence the disabled person of group II to seven years of suspended imprisonment with a four-year probationary period under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization).

Criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses from the Kurgan region were opened on July 13, 2021. The next day, investigators, together with employees of the Kurgan UFSB, the Border Directorate of the FSB of Russia for the Kurgan and Tyumen regions, the Center for Combating Extremism of the UMVD for the region and with the force support of the Russian National Guard, conducted more than 30 searches of Jehovah's Witnesses. After the searches, Sergei Skudaev, Anatoly Isakov, Valery Minsafin, Ilya Ershov and Lubin were detained.

The courts chose a preventive measure in the form of detention for Skudaev, Lubin and Isakov. However, on August 28, 2021, the court in Kurgan released Lubin and Isakov from the pre-trial detention center, replacing their preventive measure with a ban on certain actions. This happened after the European Court of Human Rights demanded that Russia take interim measures in accordance with Rule 39 of the Rules of Procedure and urgently release the arrested persons due to the threat of irreparable harm to their life and health. In particular, Lubin suffers from a vascular disease, in addition, he has hypertension and an autoimmune disease that requires treatment and oxygen. Before the intervention of the ECHR, the Kurgan city and regional courts refused to change the preventive measure for the believers. On November 19, 2021, Sergei Skudaev was also released from the pre-trial detention center, he was given a ban on certain actions.

Ershov was initially involved in Lubin's case, but in March 2023, the materials against him under Part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in the activities of an extremist organization) and Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code (financing of extremism) were separated into a separate proceeding. On June 2, 2023, Lubin's case was submitted to the court.

Sources

• Lubin's case in Shadrinsk. Information from Jehovah's Witnesses. 2024. March 28.